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The good news is that this “blessedness” doesn’t just have to begin when we die: it began with the Incarnation, and it’s something we can be a part of right here, right now. Because right here, right now, God is calling you and me into His light, calling you and me to be the light of the world, at Keele and Major Mack, in the GTA, wherever we are.
But what does this new people look like? What kind of blessed people is God forming, drawing to Himself? Well, here is where the promised material circumstances might start to change, not as an arbitrary choice on God’s part to bless some people and not others, but because God is moving us, forming us and calling us to be a people who knows and shares His love for the world. He’s calling us to be a people that takes care of others, especially the poor, the suffering, the vulnerable, which also requires us to see (in the light of God) that we are all poor, suffering and vulnerable.
And this is where we can see all that talk of law and service from Isaiah and the Psalm come to bear, hear it not as heavy-handed moralism but as Spirit-breathed morality: not simply the way people ought to live, but the way the Spirit of God is moving people to live. Giving us the desire and the energy and the means to set up the food pantry and clothing bin outside. Moving our friends at the St. Vincent de Paul society or L’Arche or Salvation Army Gateway or La Rocha or countless other groups to undertake those acts of care and hospitality on a large and organized scale, especially for those who are unable to find sustainable employment, and for the whole of Creation now in palpable groaning.
And God is moving you and me to love our neighbours, and to be neighbours wherever they are. And what happens when we love our neighbours? Well hopefully, we get neighbours for ourselves as well. We show up, we give, and we receive, in this vision of a blessed people. This parish—this small gathering of a new people in the light of Christ—is a wonderful example of becoming and finding neighbours. Jeff and Mary have mentioned that a good number of people have recently come here in a time of uncertainty, needing to find new friends or maybe simply needing a good reason to get out of the house and see other human beings. I’ve expressed to people here and elsewhere how much I appreciate that we always eat twice at St. Stephen’s: we gather before God’s presence in Word and Sacrament, and we continue that gathering in God’s presence through our friendly conversation over dinner.
It really is the way to live, the way to be human: together, before God. God is inviting us to become the light of the world, to show others this new/old way to be human. “A city on a hill cannot be hid.” So may we “let [this] light shine before others, so that they may see [our] good works and give glory to [our] Father in heaven.”
Thanks be to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Luminous Beings 